First time working with metal, made a marking knife

I like making my own tools, so it’s time to start making the metal bits too.

This marking knife started life as a 12” x 24” piece of Starrett 01 tool steel. I chopped off a piece with a hacksaw, ground and filed the profile, hardened it (oil quench) and tempered it.

Honing was a nightmare. I should have got it cleaner before tempering. I spent several hours on the stones to get the mirror polish and razor sharp edges.

The handle is cherry. I wanted a flat handle. I could have made it a bit thinner because it looks bulky, but it’s really nice to hold. The end felt light so I chucked up a brass rod in my lathe, cut a tenon and attached it to the end. I then shaped the brass with files to match the knife profile.

lumberjoe's Projects

Everyone's Projects

Project tags/keywords

15 comments so far

I really like the brass end, that’s a nice touch (which I’ll be stealing in the future :). What was your exact hardening/tempering process for the O1? I use it for knifemaking and have heard a lot of different methods… I can share the final method I’ve come up with if you’re interested, it seems to work well. Is that your brand on the cherry handle?

Bob, I got it hot in the fire until it was no longer magnetic then immediately oil quenched it. After cleaning a little slag off and checking with a file to insure hardness, it went in the oven at 400 until it was dark red. Then pulled it out and let it air cool. It’s harder than I wanted it, but good for a knife. I’d be considered if it was a chisel

Sounds good joe, nice job. 400 is a good tempering temperature for O1, though you could go to maybe 450 if you wanted it softer. The scale is a pain, I started coating my stuff with a clay solution to prevent it.

Allen, I assume you need to knock the clay off before quenching? I am concerned about decarburization so I left the edges very fat. That resulted in a lot of work after it was tempered. I would much prefer to do that when the steel is free machining.

Unless you’re leaving the knife soaking in a forge at a high temp you aren’t likely to get any decarburization, especially if you’re surfacing the metal to remove the scale. Maybe start with something coarser before you go to your sharpening stones (say 220 grit wet/dry sand paper) next time.

I like the pommel, it’s a nice touch. And the split construction is a nice way to get a perfect fit around the blade.